Breakfast with Santa at The Turing Key, Bletchley

Working in the lead-up to Christmas meant we weren’t able to take Alfie to see Father Christmas anywhere as weekends were so busy. The display at the Centre looked exactly the same as the previous year, which we didn’t bother with as it had looked the same as the year before that (which we took a three-month-old Alfie to). Luckily, Father Christmas visited the nursery and mum took Alfie to the Cha Char Chimps Christmas party. But I also booked for us to go to our local, The Turing Key for their Breakfast with Santa event.

It was a ticketed event and we were booked on the 9:05am slot on Saturday 21^st. On arrival, Santa’s helper showed us to our table and we were given some time to settle before being escorted to Santa’s grotto. An elf was waiting for us and took us in. Alfie didn’t really know what to make of it and was more impressed with all the decorations and looking out of the window. I never really know what to say in those kinds of situations, as Alfie wasn’t really talking to Father Christmas, often just saying “yes” in answer to the questions. Thankfully, he quickly got his present and we left, before the elf took some family photos (which weren’t the best due to the lighting).

Then it was time for breakfast. For the children, it was a small cooked breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage and spaghetti hoops) with a glass of juice. Alfie doesn’t drink juice, so didn’t like it and I would have been better off asking for milk or squash. He also doesn’t like egg or bacon so only ate the hoops and sausage, before asking for some of my sausage and Ash’s beans.

The adult breakfast consisted of unlimited tea & coffee and larger cooked breakfast (with additional hash brown, black pudding, tomato and mushroom, with beans instead of spaghetti hoops). It was a really generous portion, so I didn’t need feeding until dinner time. The tomato wasn’t grilled enough to my liking, and I wasn’t keen on the black pudding, but otherwise, it was good. The coffee cups were huge, so one was enough for me. Ash said he could have had another one, but hadn’t realised it was unlimited.

The staff all got into character well, making it great for younger children. The decor in the pub was pretty festive anyway, but they had added to it to create the grotto. We were there for about an hour and because the actual Santa element didn’t take very long, most of the time was spent eating – but we left pretty soon after then. I think it would have been better if the Father Christmas came out during the breakfast to see the kids again, especially as it was all organised by time slots.

It’s a shame Alfie didn’t understand it, and as soon as he had finished eating, wanted to get down. The pub doesn’t normally serve breakfast, so it will be interesting to see if it’s something they look to do going forward.

Love, Lucy xx

The Turing Key - Drayton Road, Newton Leys, Milton Keynes MK3 5SQ
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